Kim Clark

Kim B. Clark served as the president of Brigham Young University-Idaho and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was sustained as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy in the April 2015 General Conference. The following August, he was named Commissioner of Church Education. He will serve until August 1, 2019.

Clark was born March 20, 1949, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He grew up in Salt Lake City until the age of 11, when his father moved the family to Spokane, Washington. He started school at Harvard as a pre-med major, but he interrupted his schooling early on to serve a full-time mission for the Church to Germany. When he returned from his mission, he enrolled at Brigham Young University. In 1971, after he married, Clark returned to Harvard. He received his B.A. in 1974 and his M.A. in 1977. He earned his doctorate in 1978 in economics and then joined the Harvard faculty. He served as dean of the Harvard Business School from 1995 to 2005. He was also the George F. Baker Professor of Administration.

"While a professor at the Harvard Business School (HBS), Clark's research focused on modularity in design and the integration of technology and competition in industry evolution—particularly within the computer industry. He has published several articles in the Harvard Business Review and other peer-reviewed academic journals. A few of his papers were co-authored with former HBS associate dean and current BYU-Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright." [1]

Clark's call to serve as president of BYU-Idaho came in 2005 from former Church president Gordon B. Hinckley. Many people in academe could not understand the decision, since it seemed like a step down for Clark. However, holding the work of the Lord in higher esteem than the world, Clark accepted the position. He has served in many capacities in the Church, including as a scoutmaster with a ward-sponsored Boy Scout troop, as a bishop, elders quorum president, gospel doctrine teacher, and counselor in a stake mission presidency. He was called to be an Area Seventy in the Idaho Area of the LDS Church on March 31, 2007, where he served until May 2014.

Clark is an Eagle Scout and a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. He and his wife, Sue Lorraine Hunt Clark, have seven children.